Using Graphene as Heat Spreader for Thermal Management

A Case Study:
Presented to the School of ChE-Chm-BE-MSE
In Partial Fulfillment of Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering

Presented By:
SAYLON, Kyle Zandrex A.
ChE-3 / 2015108120
Professor Nanette D. Santos

With thermal solutions becoming more challenging, there is a push for novel cooling ideas
or materials to further mitigate thermal issues facing today’s electronics. In these design situations,
the proven method of analytical calculations, modeling, and laboratory testing is sometimes
bypassed in the search for a quick solution. Evolutionary progress is needed in the thermal industry
of course. However, in a rush to implement new ideas/materials thorough testing should not be
overlooked in determining thermal performance of a solution before implementation.

Natural graphite, a mineral form of graphite, has been graphitized “by nature”, and can
therefore be manufactured into products without the need for high temperature processing. In
addition, the manufacturing processes used to produce the material are so versatile that both
thermal interface sheet material and heat spreader/sink components can be produced from the same
raw materials. These materials retain the thermal anisotropy features of single crystal graphite,
with control of thermal anisotropy being possible by manipulation of the processing. Graphite, in
comparison with copper and aluminum, has a significantly higher thermal conductivity properties,
600 to 800 W/m-K. It is also lightweight having a density of 2.266 g/cm3 compared to that of
aluminum, 2.7 g/cm3, and of copper, 8.92 g/cm3. Graphite is also much more flexible than
aluminum and copper making it easier to attach in small places in the machine which needs
controlled thermals. Due to this property, not only small machines will benefit but large machines
found in military industries and aerospace industries as well. In a test conducted to compare the
heat transfer rates of copper, aluminum, and graphite, it has been determined that graphite has
higher heat transfer rates at higher flow velocities meaning, graphite can easily dissipate heat from
the machine. It can also be attached to a copper or aluminum heatsink to improve the thermal
properties of the heat spreader, specifically, the spreading resistance. The spreading resistance
occurs when there is conduction between the heat spreader and the heat source therefore, having a
low spreading resistance means that heat can easily spread across the heat spreader and be
dissipated from the machine.

One application of this is thermal management in nanoelectronics circuits. Graphene, the

latest of the discovered allotropes of carbon, exhibits extremely high intrinsic thermal
conductivity. The room temperature (RT) thermal conductivity of the suspended graphene was
determined to be ranging from 3080 - 5300 W/m-K. In a test conducted to test whether graphene
is indeed an effective material for heat spreaders, it was determined that the graphene-based heat
spreader has a better temperature profile than the conventional heat spreader. The maximum
temperature of the electronic circuit when using graphene heat spreaders was also determined. In
the figure below, the thermal conductivity of graphene heat spreaders was plotted against the
maximum temperature reached by electronic circuit. The trend of the plot shows that the
increasing thermal conductivity of the heat spreader which means that the graphene layer is indeed
effective in dissipating heat from the electronic circuit’s hotspots.